REVIEW: Promises by Marie Sexton

_______________________________________________________________Blurb

Jared Thomas has lived his whole life in the small mountain town of Coda, Colorado. He can’t imagine living anywhere else. Unfortunately, the only other gay man in town is twice his age and used to be his teacher, so Jared is resigned to spending his life alone.Until Matt Richards walks into his life, that is.

Matt has just been hired by the Coda Police Department, and he and Jared immediately become friends. Matt claims he is straight, but for Jared, having a sexy friend like Matt is way too tempting. Facing Matt’s affair with a local woman, his disapproving family, and harassment from Matt’s co-workers, Jared fears they’ll never find a way to be together—if he can even convince Matt to try.______________________________________________________________________

My Review

3.5 stars

The Story

Jared Thomas lives in the small town of Coda, Colorado. He is openly gay but very withdrawn. He has no friends, except his sister-in-law, Lizzy. He is resigned to live his life alone, but suffers from being so lonely.

Matt Richards just moved into town. He is adamant about being straight. He explains the fact that he has never been committed to any woman by preferring to be independent and autonomous. The truth is that he has never felt satisfied being with a woman. So he just gave up dating, and settled for being a bachelor. What he keeps hidden is that he was attracted to men before but always ignored or suppressed it. When he meets Jared, denying is not an option anymore.

The conflicts of the story revolve around the issues of being out or staying in the closet, struggling with homophobia, denial, unrequited love, and later relationship problems.

Jared is kind of pseudo-out. He is really self-conscious and thinks the whole world is against him just because he is gay. He can live with that, but being seen with a man by his side, being openly in a relationship is too much for him, and he panics.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You think I haven’t noticed that suddenly we can’t even go out to eat anymore? Sure, you’re fine with being gay, but only because you live your life in a fucking bubble! As soon as it comes down to actually facing people, you bury your head in the sand. You said this was what you wanted, but now you’re the one who can’t face it!”

The story is a complicated maze of feelings and conflicts. It left me puzzling over it for days. Is it real that Matt is so deep in denial that in one moment he touches Jared passionately and in the other moment he abhors being touched by him? Is it real that when his dreams finally come true, Jared is unwilling to be out with Matt in public? It was so unexpected.

The RomanceTruly wonderful: a solid friendship slowly turning into love.

The CharactersDebatable and ambiguous, but maybe for that very reason they are believable.

The PlotThe formation of Jared and Matt’s friendship and the slow development of their feelings for each other make the love story engaging. But Jared’s turnaround put me off a little of enjoying it.

The murder of that girl was totally exaggerated, unnecessary and superficially depicted. I felt the same about Jared’s self-sacrifice too, plus it was melodramatic.

Writing StyleCaptivating, a really unputdownable book. It triggered all kinds of feelings in me: mainly amusement, but it also made me laugh out loud, cry and even rage. There was not a moment when this story didn’t provoke any feelings.

EroticaEmotional and sweet but I missed the steam. Here and there it was awkward, a bit weird: Matt seemed to be oblivious about basic things.

All in allThe novel’s shortcomings are compensated with great writing style and humor, making it a really enjoyable read! Recommended!